ADT JOURNAL: CHAPTER 42

This chapter of our journal was typed at the Julesburg,
Colorado Public Library and at the Holiday Inn Express in North Platte,
Nebraska. It was sent on the Internet from the North Platte Library.

April 19, Sunday
Bill spent the day resting and writing the journal.
Laurie took a car ride with Janet and Bill's aunt to Estes Park through
Big Thompson Canyon. They saw elk and bighorn sheep.

April 20, Monday
Bill felt marginally better today but now Laurie
has the flu. She spent the day running  a fever and to and from the bathroom.
Better here than on the road!

April 21, Tuesday
Both of us felt pretty good this morning and decided
to try for a short day. The weather was sunny and crisp and we were anxious
to make up some miles because we were now two days behind our planned schedule.
But, on the road, we could tell we didn't have our full strength back and
towns with lodging were far apart. We certainly didn't feel healthy enough
to be camping yet. So, we had a choice between a 20 mile day or an 84 mile
day. We chose a 20 mile day and stopped after lunch at a motel in Evans,
just south of Greeley. Greeley was named for Horace Greeley, the New York
publisher who spoke those famous words "Go west, young man, go west."
It is reported that Greeley made one visit to his namesake town during
his lifetime.

Some of you may wonder why we seem to be pre-occupied
with our schedule for a trip like this. There are three main reasons 
first, we need to be in Center Point, Iowa by May 15 so we can go to an
ADT Society board meeting with Iowa ADT Coordinator Tom Neenan; second,
we want to be back in Virginia by June 6, which is National Trails Day  there is a chance we could be present for the possible signing ceremony
of the American Discovery Trail legislation in Washington, and thirdly
and most importantly, June 6 is the expected due date for our first grandchild.
Therefore, getting back onto our original schedule will become somewhat
obsessive for us as we travel east.

19.7 miles, 10.4 mph average, 1 hr 52 minutes
73 miles total

April 22, Wednesday
We had high hopes for a lot of easy miles today,
but once again Bill was feeling poorly. Sunny skies and above average temperatures
were on our side. Eastern Colorado is filled with lots of wide open space
with cottonwood trees lining the Platte River. Stopping in Kuner, a one
house town, we learned that the world's largest onion farm lay just south
of the highway. We pedaled on, stopping every ten miles or so to let Bill
lie down and garner his strength for the next leg. Arriving in Fort Morgan,
we again sought a motel to put Bill to bed with a fever and some well deserved
rest.

52.1 miles, 12.2 mph avg, 4 hr 15 min 124.8 miles
total

April 23, Thursday
Today was our healthiest day yet. Even so  we
both felt only about 80% of capacity. Our ride today was wonderful  lots
of wide open spaces, lonely roads, and a few interesting small towns for
good measure. In tiny Snyder, Colorado, Larry Frye beamed with pride at
how he and his wife remodeled the old post office, later a bank, into a
restaurant. He had been a chef in one of Denver's best hotels and wanted
to just have a small place in the country.

Just prior to entering a 10 mile stretch of gravel
road, a man stopped his truck and suggested a paved route to us, assuming
that we were lost. We're sure he wondered why bikers would be on such a
back country road. We assured him we were on the correct road. He was the
last vehicle we saw for those ten miles.

Last year, part of our "job" was to
critique and evaluate the route of the ADT as laid out. This we did with
our state reports to the ADT Society. This year, part of our "assignment"
as we travel through northeast Colorado is to help scout and define the
best route for the ADT in this area. The position of ADT Coordinator for
Colorado is currently vacant and the route has never been developed. We
couldn't have been happier with today's route.

Mom's Cafe in Merino served up our first milkshakes
on this trip for only 95 cents each. We arrived in Sterling with time to
spare so we stopped at the Chamber of Commerce to promote the ADT with
the head of the Chamber. Later, we were interviewed by a reporter for the
Sterling Advocate, the local paper.

47 miles, 13.7 mph avg, 3 hrs 24 minutes, 172
miles total

April 24, Friday
Today was to be our highest mileage not only so
far on this trip but it would be our longest single day of riding since
the 84 miles we rode last summer between Baker, Nevada and Milford, Utah.
The terrain couldn't have been more conducive to high mileage  flat as
a pancake to ever so slightly downhill. At Denver we were at about 5200
feet elevation. When we left the state at Julesburg, the elevation was
3744.

We were on lightly traveled paved highway all
day long with very small towns (some without even a cafe or bar) spaced
every eight to ten miles. We lunched in a small cafe in the town of Crook,
had pie in Ovid, and took a long break in Julesburg. We traveled on to
Big Springs, Nebraska, delighted to enter our second state, and checked
into the historic Phelps Hotel.

In Ovid, we learned about the Great Western Sugar
Company, which was a huge sugar beet processing plant from 1925 to 1985.
In 1985, it was owned by the Hunt brothers of Texas. When the Hunts tried
to corner the world silver market, the sugar factory went bankrupt. Hundreds
lost their jobs and employees were left holding worthless paychecks. The
once grand factory has fallen into extreme disrepair.

Just to the south of Ovid was the site of old
Fort Sedgewick where some of the scenes were filmed for Dances With Wolves.

In Julesburg, Bill went into the library to work
on the journal for a while and he left Laurie to rest on the courthouse
lawn just across the street. When he returned an hour later, he found her
sound asleep in the grass, looking like a vagrant. She apparently needed
the rest. We then pedalled on to Big Springs, Nebraska.

71.4 miles, 13.3 mph, 5 hours 20 minutes 243 miles
total

April 25, Saturday, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTERS
Welcome to Nebraska the sign read. After Doris
served us a splendid breakfast which included a huge sticky bun, we saddled
up and headed off. The only word that comes to mind for the next three
hours is "grueling". We left the South Platte River valley and
headed straight north for 20 miles to the town of Lewellen. We ascended
for four miles directly into a wind of at least 25 miles per hour. Once
on the undulating, windswept, treeless plain, the winds blasted us continuously.
We found ourselves using 2-1 gearing just to make forward progress on level
ground.

Finally, at the 13 mile mark, the terrain changed radically. We were entering the valley of the North Platte River and we began descending through jumbled hills and small shaly canyons studded
with cedar trees. We stopped at the historical sites of Windlass Hill and
Ash Hollow, early encampments of wagon trains bound for Oregon and Utah.
We reached Lewellen after averaging only 7.7 miles per hour and ate a well
deserved lunch.

Then, we headed east along the northern edge of
large Lake McConaughy. At last the wind was on our side. But where did
all these rolling hills come from? We saw a lot of wildlife  pheasants,
a four foot snake, a badger (dead), and thousands of waterfowl taking wing
over the lake. Then we finished the day with a 14 mile ride along a gravel
canal road. This was not your ordinary irrigation ditch  it was a 14 foot
deep by 20 feet wide canal which conducts water from the Kingsley Dam on
Lake McConaughy to the Gerald Gentleman Power Station 30 miles away. We
enjoyed the beautiful, if windy weather, scenic back country roads, and
our health returning. We spent the night in Paxton. It was a long day but
one we felt really good about. Between yesterday and today, we were able
to make up one of our days that we were behind.